Fun and Easy Homeschool STEM Projects

This is a sponsored post on behalf of General Mills Cereal.

I remember how frantic we were during the beginning of our homeschool journey. We thought we wouldn’t be able to fill the hours in the day, and find enough projects for the kids to do. Little did we know, some of the most amazing projects would come from everyday items we use, eat, and love. Now, we’re always look for new ways to learn together as a homeschool family. It’s a bonus if we can find projects that are not only educational, but fun. Fun is serious business in our house. We’re also adamant about diving into as many STEM assignments as possible, with 2 older kiddos that love science, and a Dad that can’t get enough of the subject either. So, when learned about these fun and easy homeschool STEM projects from General Mills Cereal and Rube Goldberg, we had to try them.

Inclined Plane

Our first homeschool STEM project was to build an inclined plane. Before we started, we had the kids explain to us what an inclined plane is, and where they could see it in everyday life. Driveways and wheelchair ramps were the top two guesses from our little scientists, who loved this cool way to learn about Physics. The Rube Goldberg simple machine we were about to create shows how an inclined plane can be made from a box of Reese’s Puffs. Yes, you read that right!

To bring a bit of fun and STEM education to the breakfast table, this January, General Mills Cereal and Rube Goldberg Inc are partnering to introduce specially marked boxes of Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, Cocoa Puffs, and Reese’s Puffs.

Each box shares 1 of 6 different simple machines that your kiddos, or the whole family, can make together. We decided to start with simple machine #1.

The instructions for the simple machine are located on the inside of the specially marked Reese’s Puffs cereal boxes. The kids enjoyed cutting and shaping each part of their inclined plane machine. Some parts need to be adjusted just so, which caused the machine to work the proper way. It took only a little bit of tinkering, but they got it to work perfectly.

The most awesome part? The roll of that first Reese’s Puff. The kids were so excited to see their Rube Goldberg machine in action. It gave my husband and I a glimpse of how they’ll be during their college days. Determined to get it right, wanting to learn something new in an inventive way, and figuring out they are fully capable of doing projects that challenge them. It was a proud moment for all of us.

Are you thinking ahead to your kids’ college days? General Mills Cereal is not only placing these cool cereal boxes in stores, they’re also encouraging inventive families to submit their cereal box creations for a chance to win one of twenty $20,000 scholarships. The scholarship can be used for your schooling, or given to an individual, i.e. a child, of your choosing. How cool is that?

To enter:

Post a photo or video of your inventor’s cereal box machine on Instagram, or the General Mills Facebook page using the hashtags #BreakfastBlueprint and #BigGSweepstakes

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends at 11:59 p.m. CT on August 1, 2018. See Official Rules at www.Rubecerealmachines.com

We can’t wait to use the rest of our STEM toolkit, to create the 5 other simple machines over the next few weeks. We’ve already decided that these easy homeschool STEM projects are going to be a curriculum staple over the next few weeks.